The Sri Burapha Award is deemed to be a highly prestigious
accolade for Thai writers. But I must confess I never expected to give
an acceptance speech for the award. Even though I have been writing books
for over 30 years, I would never call myself a writer. I am, at best,
only an amateur who cannot compare with all the masters bestowed with
the same award over the past two decades. My writings do not belong to
the literary or journalism circles that Sri Burapha pioneered, leaving
us with so many legacies. Besides, a monk had never won the award before.
All in all, to be receiving the Sri Burapha Award is a matter totally
beyond my thinking.

The latest winner of the Sri Burapha Award,
Phra Paisal Visalo: Writing is a form of spiritual practice.
In a way, to write is to affirm the existence of ones self.
But it could also be a way to develop oneself at the same
time.

Sri Burapha, or Kularb Saipradit, was one of the greatest
writers and journalists for Thailand. He was a real "gentleman",
steadfast with idealism and a model of virtue. Thus I feel very honoured
to be presented with an award named after the man.

One needs not stress how the Sri Burapha Award is highly
held among Thai writers. But it should be noted that although the award
has brought great honour to the writer, throughout his life, he never
received any award, be it in the literary or journalistic fields. And
despite his devotion to the country, he was twice put in jail and became
a persona non grata in the eyes of the establishment which prompted him
to live in exile until the end of his days.

Sri Burapha remained at the forefront of the struggle
against dictatorship and unjust power. No amount of hardship could have
swayed him from carrying on his mission. This was because his heart was
secure, strong and courageous. As important was his ability to remain
unperturbed by worldly allures - be it wealth, fame or glory - and thus
he could face the intimidation from those in power and not let himself
be used by the capitalists. Thus, he could live like a truly free man.

Such mental strength and steadfastness did not stem only
from his belief in idealism or any political ideology. It was also a result
of continuous practice of the mind, in particular in meditative contemplation,
until he realised how true it is that happiness and freedom lies in the
heart. So when Sri Burapha was jailed, he did not wince, for he knew that
his mind remained virtually free and no one could have taken that away
from him.

The idealism of Sri Burapha was not only centred on social
change toward democracy, equality and justice. He valued inner transformation
- toward goodness and freedom. So while he called for a democratic and
just society, he also worked on improving his own mind. The quality of
such a mind that has been well groomed was the firm foundation for his
social crusade.

From Left: Kularb Saipradit with Buddhadasa
Bhikkhu and a friend.

As a writer and journalist, he produced numerous works
that called for political and economic change that would bring equality
and justice to the public. There is no question about how powerful those
writings were during his times. Thailand has changed so much socio-politically
since and thus such works may seem out of date nowadays, but there are
still parts of his life and legacies that are as valuable now as they
ever were, especially his espousal of the inner consciousness and morality
that underlines a good society and, accordingly, a good life.

Much of Sri Burapha's writings, and his own existence,
revolved around the notion of moral consciousness and a steadfast belief
in truth, justice, equality, sacrifice and respect for fellow humans.
Another virtue that was repeatedly stressed was the freeing of the mind
from greed, anger and ignorance - the source of true peacefulness.

Such values are universal values that transcend the time
and place. No matter how much the country progresses or changes, these
values can never be abandoned. Even when a country claims a democratic
governance from an elected Parliament and government, as long as people
lack honesty and tolerance and try to exploit one another, there can be
no peace. And the divisiveness and subsequent chaos will sooner or later
lead to a crisis that undermines that democracy itself.

The happiness of any society is not only dependent on
progressive economic and political systems, but also on the quality of
its people. It is true that the quality of people is in part tied to their
context but it is also intertwined with collective values and culture
held by that very society. If the prevalent values or culture of that
society is geared toward promoting selfishness, exploitation or divisiveness,
then the quality of the people will accordingly dwindle, weakening the
entire society and leading to a total crisis.

The real Gentleman of Thai literature and
journalism Sri Burapha, or Kularb Saipradit (31 March 1905
to 16 June 1974).

The Thai society nowadays is deeply steeped in two major
cultural trends, what I will call the culture of greed and the culture
of hatred. The culture of greed has encouraged the spread of materialism
- and the belief that the more one indulges in material acquisition and
consumption, the happier one will be. In such a culture, people have endless
desires and exploit one another, which in turn leads to wide social gaps,
rampant injustice, corruption, crime and environmental problems.

At the same time, the culture of hatred has encouraged
the feeling of enmity among one another just on the basis of differences
in beliefs, religion, ideology, ethnicity and social status. The fear
and paranoia has made one look at people who think differently as enemies.
Nowadays, the seed of divisiveness has spread to the point that one looks
at those who wear a different colour as bad people. They have preconceptions
that only the bad, the unpatriotic, and the ingrates to the institution
would wear such-and-such a colour or subscribe to a particular set of
political beliefs associated with that colour code. Each side is too busy
labelling the other to see how the others are also humans. So both sides
are ready to trample on one another without hesitation.

If the culture of greed is centred on notions of consumption,
lust and glory, the culture of hatred accordingly thrives on those of
anger, hatred, and fear, all of which have been eroding the spirit of
Thai society and its people to an unprecedented level. It is thus necessary
to work together to nurture the spirit of the people so they can withstand
the power of those two cultural strands. One could promote good values
that can serve as a guideline for people to conduct their lives. But we
should also encourage people to realise the real happiness of the mind,
which is a far more refined and virtuous form of happiness than the material
one. Those who have been able to realise it will not be swayed by the
temptations of greed and will be willing to help other people. For they
are aware that making others happy will make one happy oneself as it helps
one to become less attached to the notion of "me" and "mine-ness"
and to have a light, peaceful heart.

In parallel to this should be an effort to develop an
awareness of one's own anger, hatred and fear. They will be able to see
how attachment to any single ideology can make people narrow-minded and
full of bias, which in turn makes them feel miserable and may even wreak
havoc in others' lives. But with mental alertness, it is hard for the
anger, hatred and fear to take over one's mind. We can then see in others
their humaneness, suffering, and even goodness, and can forgive and feel
love and compassion toward them. In the end, they are also fellow humans
who love happiness and abhor suffering just like we are. Even when conflicts
persist, be they due to differences in opinion or interests, we should
try to resolve them peacefully and not resort to violence.

I am well aware that to bring about a peaceful society
requires concerted efforts to make equality, justice and democracy a reality.
But social change is not only about political and economic aspects but
also the spiritual dimension. Actually, the two sides cannot be separated.
The spirit of people cannot grow in a bad environment. Likewise, good
political and economic systems cannot thrive when the people are not faring
well spiritually. But often, the symbiotic ties between the two have often
been overlooked. Thus the present push for social change ignores the spiritual
dimension, while those who pay heed to spirituality tend to ignore society
and be occupied with their personal pursuits. What I have been trying
to do is bring the two dimensions together.

Naturally, as a monk, there is nothing better than trying
to make people aware of and nurture the spiritual dimension in order to
lead their lives and society toward a better place. In other words, it
is to encourage people to see their own potential to realise the freedom
of the mind as well as the goodness and humaneness in others so they will
try to peacefully build a better society together. After considering my
skills, I chose writing as one of the means to achieve such goals. I believe
that this mission is crucial, especially in times when people craft words
to hurt, slander, and/or recharge the energy of hatred, as is happening
now. What Thai society needs is words that invite people to be compassionate
toward one another, to understand each other's sufferings, and to believe
in the energy of love rather than in the energy of anger and hatred.

My path toward writing began long before I entered the
monkhood. Thirty-eight years ago, while at secondary school, I was similar
to thousands of young men and women who woke up and realised the magnitude
of problems that were overwhelming the country at the time. My desire
to see a more just, egalitarian and democratic Thailand has led me to
use writing both to wake up the social consciousness of the people and
to criticise the state of affairs. The desire to see society change for
the better, for the benefit of all beings, is the primary push that led
me to write continuously. But writing is only one means. I have been engaged
in other social activities, be they related to human rights issues and
non-violence and environmental movements. I view myself more as a social
activist than a writer. Although entering the monkhood has somewhat led
to a change in my roles, I still have not given up my writing and public
work. Only the focus has changed toward giving more importance on the
spiritual dimension which has been rather lacking in most social movements.

Being a monk who has to practice insight meditation seriously,
I can see how social and inner transformation must go hand in hand. The
balance between outside and inside work is necessary, if the work for
society is to be genuinely for the benefit of the public and not to serve
one's ego. At the same time, one will have the inner peacefulness to sustain
oneself - which will keep one from swaying with the way of the world,
helping one withstand all the temptations and not to fall into the traps
of the anger,hatred and fear loop.

Such awareness makes me see clearly that social and self-development
work cannot be separated. This is similar to what Buddhadasa Bhikkhu spoke
of: "To work is to practice dharma." From seeing writing as
a form of social action, I became aware that writing is also a form of
spiritual practice. In a way, to write is to affirm the existence of one's
self. But it can also be a way to develop oneself at the same time. Through
writing, a person presents his or her ideas and feelings to the public
arena, to be shared with others and to receive their comments accordingly.
A good writer should be open-minded and accepting of criticism as well
as praise. To do so, a writer must try to lessen his or her ego, or at
least to be mindful of the ripples in their mind when confronting criticisms.
Such is a way to practice lessening one's ego.

Buddhadasa once referred to Sri Burapha in his writing:"
To practice dharma is in fact to write." Therefore, one might rephrase
the monk's statement to be: "To write is to practice dharma."
I am also reminded of a quote by American poet Robert Frost from which
I took to be a good moral lesson: Education is the ability to listen to
almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. Such
view of education shares a lot with Buddhism, that is to say, a truly
educated person must be able to keep oneself calm in the face of criticism.
I have to admit that I have not yet completely reached that stage, but
I also believe that this is the goal I should try to reach, through writing
as a form of self-development.

I would like to express my gratefulness to the committee
of the Sri Burapha Fund who think my writing deserves the award this year.
I have decided to accept this prestige although I see it as actually much
greater than me. I would like also to take this opportunity to thank Acharn
Sulak Sivaraksa who has played a pivotal role in leading me along this
path up until now. It was Acharn Sulak's books that first inspired a 15-year-old
boy to write even though he knew there would be few people who would read
it. It made the boy want to follow in his footsteps so he took to produce
more in the classroom without any fear of reprimand he might have got
from his teachers or the school principal. Later, when I got to know Acharn
Sulak personally, he even went so far as trusting me, then only a second-year
university student, to run the Pacarayasara magazine. Acharn Sulak has
constantly supported me, by getting my writing published before and after
I became a monk. He is someone I respect as a teacher and a model of writing.
To receive the Sri Burapha Award which Acharn Sulak as well as all the
other masters of Thai literature have received is thus a great honour
for me.

This is an English translation of a speech
delivered by Phra Paisal Visalo on May 5, 2010 (the Thai Writers' Day)
at the Pridi Banomyong Institute.